At age 13, Rich Kovach was working at a service station in a small coal mining town on the border of Ohio and West Virginia. One customer he got to know would bring in his Cadillac for service and one day Kovach asked him, “How do you get a Cadillac like this?”

The customer responded, “By working for yourself.”

Kovach knew from that moment he wanted his own company.

“I didn’t know what kind of business, but I wanted my own business,” he recalled.

In the subsequent development years he did some carpentry, plumbing and other jobs. He was making $2.90 an hour in 1959. 

“If you have a family you can’t make it on $2.90,” he found.

In 1970, Kovach had a die-making apprenticeship at Champion Forge in Cleveland. When the company closed its die room, Kovach saw an opportunity to supply the dies Champion Forge still needed, so he acquired some machinery and installed it in his garage to make dies and provide maintenance for old dies.

He named his fledgling company, Ken Tool & Die, for his son Ken.

Nine months later the growing business needed more space and Kovach leased 2,500 sq ft.  Now with four employees, he held CEO, engineer, draftsman and die sinker roles.

By 1974 he was needing more space again but buildings in Cleveland were expensive, so he found a 21-acre spot 58 miles west in Jefferson, OH, and designed a new 3,000 sq ft building.

Kovach refocused the business: He began forging hot dropped fastening hardware and the company name became Ken Forging.

By 1995, he added 10,000 sq ft for processing machinery and forging presses.

Early on Kovach developed a business strategy of having product in stock.  

“When a customer calls, we have it made already,” Kovach told GlobalFastenerNews.com. “Whether it is in our catalog or on the website, we can usually ship within one day.”

Competitors may take “six, eight, ten weeks to make it.”

He recalled a company from Texas needing 50,000  3/4” eyebolts virtually overnight. Ken Forging was able to ship 35,000 within a day and a half. The rest “were blanks on the shop floor that we forged and shipped out the door the next week.”

Ken Forging has many employees with 20 to 35 years with the company, but he finds the newest generation perplexing.  

“In the 1960’s-70’s if you found a job, you kept it.” Today’s millennials don’t work that way.

“Workers are as much a part of this business as anything,” Kovach declared. Sometimes the focus is too much on the front office staff.

Fast forward to 2020: Today Ken Forging is housed in 450,000 sq ft. Each new addition was designed by Kovach. And there are 170 employees.

Eyebolts are the number one product for Ken Forging. Also forged are rod ends, turnbuckles, eye nuts, C-clamps and screws, machine strap clamps, pad eyes, wedges, T-slot nuts, D-rings and swivel hoist rings.

Ken Forging’s half century is being marked by a 50th Anniversary banner hanging from the rafters above the production floor. And all the Ken Forging employees posed as a group for an official 50th photo.

As founder, owner, CEO and president, Kovach has begun turning Ken Forging over to the next generation: His son Ken Kovach is VP. After 25 years in a mental health career, daughter Kris Kovach Velliquette returned to take a sales position.

Kovach acknowledged that 50 years after starting Ken Forging though he is still enjoying what he is doing, but “I’m not as eager now.” A part time role “hanging around” works well today.

Ken Forging is located at 1049 Griggs Rd., Jefferson, OH 44047-8772. Tel: 800 536-3674 Email: sales@KenForging.com Web: KenForging.com